Tag Archive

By Siobhan O’Leary Reinhard Mohn, the post-war founder of German media giant Bertelsmann, has died at the age of 88 (as reported in a press release from the company and covered in BuchReport). Mohn was born in Gütersloh in 1921, the fifth generation of the Bertelsmann/Mohn business family, and took over the reins of his family’s printing and publishing house C. …

By Edward Nawotka Deutsche Welle reports that Daniel Alarcon has won the inaugural International Literature Award from Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures). He was awarded 25,000-euro ($36,000) for his debut novel “Lost City Radio.” The prize was established to “showcase the works of talented Asian, African and Latin American writers.” Publishers Marketplace notes that in …

By Siobhan O’Leary With the Frankfurt Book Fair just around the corner, the jury for the German Book Prize has announced its shortlist of six titles from the original longlist of 154. The six novels still in the running as reported in the Boersenblatt are Rainer Merkel’s Lichtjahre entfernt, Herta Müller’s Atemschaukel, Überm Rauschen by Norbert Scheuer, Du stirbst nicht by Kathrin Schmidt, Clemens …

By Edward Nawotka No other country in the world has so many people betting on their top book prize as does the UK, where the annual announcement of the Booker Prize Shortlist — released yesterday — prompts bookies to whet their pencils and scratch out odds on who will win the big prize. It’s a rich irony, for publishers themselves …

By Siobhan O’Leary The decision by a band of independent German publishers to launch their own book “Hotlist” as an alternative to the German Book Awards (see our coverage here) has been met with quite a bit of criticism in the trades. For starters, the Boersenblatt reports that the Kurt Wolff Stiftung (KWS) — a prominent foundation that supports the …

By Siobhan O’Leary Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt has announced the shortlist for its first ever “International Literature Prize”, which will be awarded on September 30th, BuchMarkt reports. The list includes works that have been translated into German from English, Persian, and Spanish and includes Daniel Alarcón’s Lost City Radio (originally published by HarperCollins US), DeNiro’s Game by Rawi Hage (published by Anansi …

By Siobhan O’Leary A group of independent publishers are protesting the dominance of conglomerate publishers among the books longlisted for the year’s German Book Prize by launching their own rival list, dubbed “Hotlist: Recommendations of the Independents.” According to Buchreport, Germany’s third largest chain bookseller, Mayersche, is supporting the effort by offering a 5,000 euro “prize,” with the winner to be selected …

By Edward Nawotka The seven member jury of the German Book Prize has narrowed down an initial 150 submissions to 20 semi-finalists. A shortlist of six will be announced on September 16, with the winner being presented at the start of the Frankfurt Book Fair. The prize, now in its fifth year, is sponsored by the German Publishers and Booksellers …

By Siobhan O’Leary Following Berlin Verlag’s May release of the paperback edition of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini’s books have now sold more than 2.5 million books in the German-speaking world. Even Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave the book a little boost when he recommended A Thousand Splendid Suns during a German Bundestag debate. He also lists The Kite Runner …

By Edward Nawotka In the UK, the big news was the announcement of the Booker Prize Long List, which has now been dubbed the awkward sounding “Man Booker Dozen.” (There are 13 titles on the list, which of course purposefully makes this the Man Baker’s Dozen). On a list that features stalwarts such as A.S. Byatt and William Trevor, both …